CNN: Is Helsinki world's coolest city?

When it snows, the flakes come at you like shards of ice, reported Cable News Network (CNN).

There's a biting wind that freezes your ears off. Daylight lasts only a few hours. And no one talks much, said the report.

Helsinki in the middle of winter sounds like a place to avoid at all costs. A dark, brooding city that shivers under piles of snow.

Maybe it was once, but not anymore. Somehow, against the icy odds, Finland has established itself as one of the happiest nations on Earth and, appropriately given the chilling grip of its winters, Helsinki is now unequivocally one of the planet's coolest cities, the CNN report added.

So how do the Finns do it? How do they survive such punishing conditions and still emerge smiling?

Click CNN to read the detail original report